I left him to finish his short story and walked out across the circle of smooth lawn towards the golf links.  And there I met Mrs. Cooke and her niece coming in together.  The warm red of her costume became Miss Thorn wonderfully, and set off the glossy black of her hair.  And her skin was glowing from the exercise.  An involuntary feeling of admiration for this tall, athletic young woman swept over me, and I halted in my steps for no other reason, I believe, than that I might look upon her the longer.

What man, I thought resentfully, would not travel a thousand miles to be near her?

“It is Mr. Crocker,” said Mrs. Cooke; “I had given up all hope of ever seeing you again.  Why have you been such a stranger?”

“As if you didn’t know, Aunt Maria,” Miss Thorn put in gayly.

“Oh yes, I know,” returned her aunt, “and I have not been foolish enough to invite the bar without the magnet.  And yet, Mr. Crocker,” she went on playfully, “I had imagined that you were the one man in a hundred who did not need an inducement.”

Miss Thorn began digging up the turf with her lofter:  it was a painful moment for me.

“You might at least have tried me, Mrs. Cooke,” I said.

Miss Thorn looked up quickly from the ground, her eyes searchingly upon my face.  And Mrs. Cooke seemed surprised.

“We are glad you came, at any rate,” she answered.

And at luncheon my seat was next to Miss Thorn’s, while the Celebrity was placed at the right of Miss Trevor.  I observed that his face went blank from time to time at some quip of hers:  even a dull woman may be sharp under such circumstances, and Miss Trevor had wits to spare.  And I marked that she never allowed her talk with him to drift into deep water; when there was danger of this she would draw the entire table into their conversation by some adroit remark, or create a laugh at his expense.  As for me, I held a discreet if uncomfortable silence, save for the few words which passed between Miss Thorn and me.  Once or twice I caught her covert glance on me.  But I felt, and strongly, that there could be no friendship between us now, and I did not care to dissimulate merely for the sake of appearances.  Besides, I was not a little put out over the senseless piece of gossip which had gone abroad concerning me.

It had been arranged as part of the day’s programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake.  But the table was not graced by our host’s presence, Mrs. Cooke apologizing for him, explaining that he had disappeared quite mysteriously.  It turned out that he and the judge had been served with luncheon in the Ethiopian card-room, and neither threats nor fair words could draw him away.  The judge had not held such cards for years, and it was in vain that I talked to him of consequences.  The Ten decided to remain and watch a game which was pronounced little short of phenomenal, and my client gave orders for the smaller brake and requested the Celebrity to drive.  And this he was nothing loth to do.  For the edification as well as the assurance of the party Mr. Allen explained, while we were waiting under the porte cochere, how he had driven the Windsor coach down Piccadilly at the height of the season, with a certain member of Parliament and noted whip on the box seat.